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Businesses

Ask Slashdot: How Do You Fight Usage Caps? 353

First time accepted submitter SGT CAPSLOCK writes "It certainly seems like more and more Internet Service Providers are taking up arms to combat their customers when it comes to data usage policies. The latest member of the alliance is Mediacom here in my own part of Missouri, who has taken suit in applying a proverbial cork to their end of a tube in order to cap the bandwidth that their customers are able to use. My question: what do you do about it when every service provider in your area applies caps and other usage limitations? Do you shamefully abide, or do you fight it? And how?"

Comment Re:Oh look the d word (Score 1) 212

I understand the chemistry. your chemsitry analysis is correct on teh face of it. But, similar to the other guy, something is at work when I drink soda.
Its purely anecdotal, and i dont know the mechanism at play, but i dont drink sodas because i get heartburn directly afterword, even if the soda was all I had.
simiarly i no longer enjoy tomato sauces for same reason, stomach no likey tomata sauces, or other acidic foods.

(well thats not strictly true..-I- still enjoy my italian...i just come prepared with a bucket of Tums before commencing the gorging)

Comment Re:we've legislated before we've innovated. (Score 1) 185

why even make it a plate? who needs to innovate?

we've had electronic tolls tickers on our windshields (RFIDs) for years.
just use those.

no more unreadable plates. no more faded or peeling stickers.
just point the scanner at a car to get its license and registration.

no more visits to Hell, I mean, the DMV.
Just renew online or over the phone.

Comment This Could Go the Other Way (Score 2) 185

I can't wait to hack one, that way I can change my plate on the fly. Metal plates are a hassle to fake, but an electronic plate that is designed to change at the push of a button is going to make counterfeiting super easy.

Hell, you could have your plate change to a new (fake) number every time the odometer clicks over another mile. That will pollute all those fancy ANPR databases. You could really screw with those ANPR systems by using your own ANPR via a dash-cam that scans on-coming cars and once they have passed, switches your plate to that other car's license number.

Either way you'll have a very small chance of getting caught since it will change so fast and you don't even need to stop the car to do it. Besides, normally no one even looks at your plate unless something bad has already happened,

Submission + - Austrian Professor creates Kindle E-book copier with Lego Mindstorm (allthingsd.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Using a Lego Mindstorm set, a Mac, and optical character recognition, Austrian professor Peter Purgathofer created a makeshift ebook copier. From the article, "It’s sort of a combination of high tech meets low. The scanning is done by way of the Mac’s iSight camera. The Mindstorms set does two things: Hits the page-advance button on the Kindle (it appears to be an older model, like the one in the picture above), then mashes the space bar on the Mac, causing it to take a picture." Purgathofer calls the creation a "reflection on the loss of long established rights." Check out the Vimeo video for a demonstration.
Government

California Legislature Approves Trial Program For Electronic Plates 185

Do you worry that the widespread use of plate-scanning cameras might be used in ways that violate your privacy ? Now you can ratchet your worry level up a bit: Ars Technica reports that "This week, the California State Senate approved a bill that would create the nation’s first electronic license plate. Having already passed the state’s assembly, the bill now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown (D) for his signature." From the article: "The idea is that rather than have a static piece of printed metal adorned with stickers to display proper registration, the plate would be a screen that could wirelessly (likely over a mobile data network) receive updates from a central server to display that same information. In an example shown by a South Carolina vendor, messages such as 'STOLEN,' 'EXPIRED,' or something similar could also be displayed on a license plate. ... The state senator who introduced the bill, Sen. Ben Hueso, a Democrat who represents San Diego, did not respond to Ars' multiple requests for an interview or comment. It still remains unclear as to exactly why this bill was proposed and what its objectives are. The precise technical details of the program are similarly unclear, as is how long plate information would be retained and who would have access to it."

Comment Re:This is a stupid idea. (Score 5, Interesting) 200

but they tend not to screw with cryptography which is allowed to be on the GSA schedule when embodied in communications equipment for sale to the U.S.Military.

So the NSA did not screw with Dual_EC_DRBG in the NIST standard? Or is it just that any hardware which implements Dual_EC_DRBG is going to be rejected without explanation when it is submitted for FIPS 140 certification?

Comment Re:zimmerman stalked the poor kid (Score 1) 588

Or, maybe it was Martin who got close enough to Zimmerman? There is at least as much evidence supporting that conclusion as there is yours.

IF there is, than what is it? You were so bold and confident until I started digging in to your citation. What you have shown me is that your beliefs are based on a ridiculously lop-sided reading of the evidence not "at least as much" not even close, it is practically religious in how much it appears to simply be based on faith.

Submission + - Legislation Seeks to Bar NSA Backdoors in Encryption (nytimes.com)

Frosty Piss writes: Congressman Rush D. Holt, a New Jersey Democrat, has proposed legislation that would prohibit the agency from installing “back doors” into encryption, the electronic scrambling that protects e-mail, online transactions and other communications. Representative Holt, a physicist, said Friday that he believed the NSA was overreaching and could hurt American interests, including the reputations of American companies whose products the agency may have altered or influenced. “We pay them to spy,” Mr. Holt said. “But if in the process they degrade the security of the encryption we all use, it’s a net national disservice.”

Comment Re:zimmerman stalked the poor kid (Score 1) 588

All that means is that Martin said that Zimmerman was following him

Right, he says zimmerman is following him and then shortly thereafter asks zimmerman why he's following him. Obviously Zimmerman was just standing around his truck minding his own business at that point and had not come up close enough to Martin for Jenteal to hear Martin's speech over the phone. He was probably just using a megaphone is all.

You stretch the limits of credulity to do exactly what you accused me of in your first post. With you it's always the benefit of the doubt for Zimmerman but not for Martin.

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